Chapter 10

I took my six companions to our local metal trade agent early the next morning, before going to the weapons school. I had ordered five hundred and sixty pounds of platinum for the seven of us to carry on the way home. I paid for the platinum, and we each put eighty pounds of platinum in our backpacks. I hopped us to the weapons school.

When we arrived at the weapons school, we met Sereine. Inspector Nast had transported her, her equipment, and her weapons to the school in a police vehicle. It was extremely rare for a police officer to carry lethal weapons in public. Since she was dressed in a tactical police uniform, she could have carried her weapons while riding public transport. However, that would have been disturbing to the citizens who were traveling with her, and could result in complaints that Inspector Nast didn’t want to address.

When everyone was ready, I hopped us to John’s Planet to pick up our equipment. When we arrived, we collected our equipment, and prepared for the next hop. Sereine and I made ourselves comfortable and we talked about sharing the hopping duties. While I read off the coordinates of Earth’s Universe and the intermediate destination planets from my Hopping Journal, she recorded them in her Hopping Journal.

Sereine was a more powerful D-Hopper than I was. My maximum hop distance was three universes, and Sereine’s was five universes. It took me an hour to fully recover, but she recovered in forty-five minutes. We would follow my route to Earth, and during each hop, Sereine and I would link our senses so she could learn the location of the destination planet in each universe. We decided to leave exploration of the other planets on my route for a later time.

Hopping while linked to someone is slightly more strenuous than controlling a hop yourself. We decided not to push too hard, so we stopped for a night’s sleep before reaching Wayside. After waking and eating, we reached Wayside in five hops.

On the way to Wayside, Matt and Mary asked if they could talk with me about a personal matter. Mary said that they had discussed it, and for the past day or so, they both felt they were in the way more than helpful. Matt felt he and Mary should remain on Earth when I returned to the Multiverse. He said he could be more help to me on Earth by talking with Ken Smythe about my presenting my Ambassadorial credentials. We discussed his approach and I agreed that it would be best for them to remain on Earth.

After arriving on Wayside, we stored the equipment that we weren’t taking to Earth in the storage shed, and put a tarp over the equipment that wouldn’t fit in the shed. I needed to get a larger storage shed during our next trip. When everyone was ready, I hopped us to my house in Denver.

While Matt and Mary were getting ready to go home, Matt turned to me and said, “Doug, on the way back, it occurred to me that we forgot to pick up some of those prepackaged meals you mentioned before we left.”

“Yeah, it occurred to me also when we stopped to eat our first meal.”

Mary laughed and said, “Matt was right. Those military rations are not very good. Whatever you are planning on buying has to be better than what we had to eat.”

During our rest stops, I had talked with Matt and Mary about what had to be done before I started back to Vora. They would help me with the tasks I needed to do by assembling another load of trade goods.

If Ken confirmed that we had an interim agreement, I would look for a small ranch that I could buy and use as temporary housing. If I were lucky, I would find a place on a very large parcel of land that was suitable for building my new home and Embassy. My ladies would start teaching Sereine to speak English, and to explain what they knew about Earth’s culture. I had suggested they be the teachers, for I found that I always learned more about a subject when I tried to teach it to someone, than I did by just studying the subject.

It was the middle of the afternoon when we arrived, so I called Bill at HS, “Evening, Bill, this is Doug. We had to interrupt our trip due to the security force I plan to hire are sugar addicts. They need more sugar than what I had with me to begin the desensitization treatment. Once I take care of several matters, I will be returning, but Matt and Mary will be remaining here. They mentioned something about a short trip to visit relatives, since Matt still has some time off.

“What has been going on since we left? Specifically, did Ken Smythe get a ruling on the matter Matt and I discussed with him?”

“Ken did call and ask that you to call him when you return. He said to let you know that the President and Secretary of State agreed in principle, but there are a couple of provisos that he needs to explain.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Bill. I’ll call Ken as soon as I can.

“It sounds as if matters are okay with him, so I will be looking to buy some land. I was wondering if you have some time to help me locate a new place to live.”

“I’ll have to check with Alan. I was assigned to support an investigation that Alan is working on to keep me busy while you were gone. I need to know when you need me and for how long?”

“The when is as soon as possible, preferably around 8:00 tomorrow morning, because I need to return within the next three days. Do you know of any good real estate sales agencies?”

“I’ll call Alan at home. I don’t think helping you will be a problem since he is in charge of the investigation, and he knows you have a priority on my time. I’ll let you know if there is a problem, otherwise I’ll stop by at 8:00. As far as an agent goes, I’ll ask Alan which agent he used to buy his home. He was very happy with his agency and the salesman.”

I called Ken at his home. He told me that the Secretary of State and the President had agreed to everything in principle, but wanted to clarify one item with me. Ken and I discussed the matter and I agreed to accept the President’s interpretation regarding the maximum number of senior members I would have on my staff. It was more people than I had been considering. The US Government must be top-heavy when it came to management.

The next morning I called HRD, and I had the receptionist put me through to William. “Hello, William, this is Doug. How are things going with the design?”

“Morning, Doug, we’re making good progress. We should be ready for another concept review in a few weeks. Is this just a status check, or did you have something specific in mind?”

“I am going to need a warehouse, and I’m thinking that it could be consolidated with the utility buildings and garage. It could be a single building behind the apartments that is as wide as they are, and about a hundred feet deep.”

“Sure, we can add that in easily. Is there anything else?”

“Not at the moment. I did get a chance to talk with a security specialist. They are going to prepare a recommendation for the defensive perimeters. As soon as I get that, I will drop it off, and go over it with you.

“We had to come back early to take care of a problem, and will be leaving again in a day or so. If you have anything for me before then, call me at home. I’ll talk with you later.”

Bill arrived and Rita had let him in while I was on the phone. I waved hello, and motioned him to have a seat until I finished my call. I ended the call and joined Bill in the living room.

“Morning, Doug, I called Alan’s agent this morning and he said to stop by any time this morning. Are you ready to go?”

“Give me a minute or two to slip into some shoes, say goodbye to my ladies, and I’ll be ready. Is Sue ready to forgive me?”

“I think that check you handed her convinced her that things weren’t as bad as they seemed, at first. That and the idea of a high paying job in the private sector went a long way toward forgiveness.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Alan’s agent, Tom Watkins, was with a private real estate agency called Holm’s Realty. Their specialty was personal residences, but they also handled undeveloped property and commercial listings. Rush hour traffic was still heavy, so it took us almost an hour to get to the realty office on the outskirts of Commerce City.

“Good morning. I’m Doug Smith and this is Bill Hendricks. We are here to speak with Tom Watkins. Is he currently available?”

“Yes, he is. Please come with me.”

Tom turned out to be an older, heavyset man with thinning brown hair.

“Tom, these gentlemen are Mister Bill Hendricks and Mister Doug Smith. They would like to speak with you if you have some time.”

“What can I do for you gentlemen, today?”

Tom was a friendly sort of person, so I said, “You helped Bill’s coworker Alan Thompson find a new home a while back. I am looking to buy a ranch or very large lot on which I can build a large facility. I need at least two thousand acres of flat land with a good water supply. It needs to be away from any developed communities, and ideally I would like it to have a large house.”

“Large lots like you want come on the market occasionally, but the price is usually very high. What’s your upper limit on price?”

“Well for the right land, I would be willing to go as high as forty million.”

“Okay, I’ll input your requirements and we will see what is available.”

I played twenty questions with Tom in defining my criteria. He came up with five locations within Colorado. There were two northeast of Denver and three southeast of Colorado Springs.

While Tom called the selling agents of the properties northeast of Denver, he had me fill out some forms to show that I was a qualified buyer. Bill actually filled out the forms for me, as I hadn’t learned to write English at that time; although, Slim did teach me how to write a check.

It took us a little over an hour to get to the first property. It was a nice piece of property, but it wasn’t suitable for it was broken up into three lots. We headed to the second property, and stopped in Fort Morgan for lunch.

We were talking over lunch, when we were approached by a tall, slender old man. His face was weathered with deep lines around his eyes, a Stetson on his head, a white western shirt, blue jeans, and tooled cowboy boots. I was thinking ’cowboy’, for the only thing missing was a horse.

“I’m Kenneth Johnson, but I go by Ken. I’ve been listening to you men talking about buying a ranch. I have a large place about twenty-seven miles west and two miles north of here. That puts me about half way to Greely. I want to retire and take it easy for a while before I die, so I’m thinking of selling it.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mister Johnson, why don’t you join us. Just slide into the booth next to Tom.

This is my friend, Bill Hendricks, and our real estate agent, Tom Watkins. I’m Doug Smith.”

“It’s nice to meet you fellers, and please call me Ken. The ranch has been in my family for over a hundred years now. I’ve had speculators wanting to buy it, so they can turn it into housing tracts. I’d hate to see it broken up that way.”

“What about your family, Ken? Aren’t your kids interested in taking it over?”

“No, not really. My wife died about ten years back, and I have two sons and a daughter. They couldn’t wait to get to the big city. They hate ranching and small town life. If I left the land to them, they’d sell it to those land speculators.”

Tom broke in with, “How big is the ranch? Do you own the timber, mineral, and water rights? What’s the appraised value, and how much are you asking?”

“The ranch has four thousand eight hundred acres of grazing land with good water. I own the timber, mineral, and water rights, though I don’t think there was ever any timber on the ranch, and I don’t know of any mineral deposits. However, the south border of the ranch overlaps the northern portion of the Riverside Reservoir. That will give you access to an immense amount of water.

“I never had the place appraised, but those speculators were offering twelve million. I think that was their low-ball offer. Couple of neighbors sold their places for around twelve million, but their lots were smaller and didn’t have as much water. I guess the land, house, barn, cattle, and equipment is probably worth around twenty-five million.”

“Tom, I think we should go have a look at Ken’s place.”

When the waitress noticed Ken sitting with us, she brought Ken’s meal and coffee over to our table. When we finished eating, we followed Ken to his ranch. I told Tom that if he handled the sale for me, I would see that his agency got a two percent commission for their efforts.

The lot measured about two and a half miles by three miles, and the ranch house and barn were just off the county road in the southeast corner of the lot. Ken drove us around on the property so we could see what the terrain was like. It was almost flat, but it had a few small twenty to thirty foot hills along its western edge, which included a few gullies.

“I like the place, Ken, and think it’s almost perfect for me. Let’s talk terms and price.

“Have you given any consideration as to where you want to live, and what you want to do after the sale is complete?”

“Not really, I have been working myself up to making the decision to sell. This is my home, and I really don’t want to leave it. However, the way my kids are, well they basically abandoned me. They are all doing well financially, so they don’t need my money. If I left the land to them, they would just sell it off and my ranch would be turned into one of those ugly housing tracts.”

“I’ll make a deal with you, Ken. If I buy the ranch, you can continue to live here in your house, and can come and go as you please. I will explain more about things later. At the moment, there are certain things about me that I can’t discuss, but you can think of me as a diplomat who is in the process of presenting his Ambassadorial credentials. I plan to build a diplomatic compound in the center of the lot, with homes and facilities for my Embassy, my staff, me, and our families.”

“That sounds okay to me. I don’t have a problem with building on the land. My problem is having someone subdivide it and build hundreds of those cookie cutter homes. Let’s say fifteen million bucks, lock, stock, and barrel. I should have enough money left, even after the government takes its cut, to last me for the rest of my days.”

We shook on the deal. As far as Ken and I were concerned, the ranch was now mine. However as Tom said, there is always the paperwork, and other things that went into transferring the title into my name. Tom would take care of making sure the title was clear, and all the papers were signed and filed. I let Ken know I was leaving on a business trip tomorrow or the next day, and would be out of touch for about four weeks. He and Tom agreed to work together, so we could have the closing when I returned.

If Matt and Mary had picked up the trade merchandise I wanted, I might be able to leave sometime tomorrow. The pace of things was increasing, and I was starting to lose control of the things I had in progress and my planned activities. It was time for all of us to hold a meeting, but there just wasn’t enough time for me to develop an agenda and conduct the meeting before we left.

On the way back to Tom’s office, I talked with Bill about my plans to have him, Matt, Charlie, Alan, and Sue come to work for me. I asked him to discuss my plans with the others and that we would have a meeting after I returned to discuss the matter. I told him to stress that the plan was for the future, but I would implement it immediately if HS started causing anyone problems.

As we made the final part of the trip back to Tom’s agency, I had a chance to start planning the agenda for next week’s meeting with the police officers. I needed to address the compensation package, duties, housing, recreation, and similar matters. Their spouses and kids would present a different set of concerns. Rita and Cindy may be able to help answer questions and address most of their concerns. A number of my people will most likely need some special training in operation and maintenance of the security equipment we will be using. I suppose certain items of equipment will require factory maintenance personnel to travel to Earth to perform the installation, alignment, and repair activities.

I was still in that meditative state contemplating what I needed to address for the meeting, when Tom drove into his office’s parking lot. We went inside and Tom introduced me to his boss. Tom explained how Ken had approached us and made his offer. He said that I was willing to pay the real estate agency a two percent commission on a fifteen million dollar sale, if the agency would take care of the paperwork and everything else associated with finalizing the property transfer.

I’m not sure what the boss’s problem was, but he told Tom that the lowest he would go is five percent. Tom had told me that his boss had a hang-up when it came to commissions and he would probably reject the rate I offered. I let Tom know that if that happened, I would withdraw my offer. My understanding was that the mechanics of selling a piece of property are not that complex. Once the terms of a sale are agreed upon, the majority of the complex activities are done by a title company. If the boss didn’t want my business, I would have someone else work with Tom to get my paperwork done, and I would pay him the two percent commission. We would work it in a way that Tom’s name didn’t come up.

Tom’s boss has to be one of the most stubborn and obstinate people on Earth. He would not budge below five percent; I was just as stubborn and refused to increase my offer. I thanked him and Tom for their time, and then Bill and I left to go home.

Matt and Mary were at my home unloading sugar, when Bill and I got back. Bill and I pitched in to help, and had the remaining sugar in the house in five minutes.

The four of us ended up in my study talking about our day. I had Bill call Sue and tell her to stop by my place for dinner on the way home from work. I was lucky for Betty had not started dinner yet. There is nothing worse than pissing off the cook, especially when she is scheduled to be your bedmate.

I told Betty that with everyone staying for dinner, we should just put in an order for takeout pizza. My ladies were in love with pizza. Sereine had never had pizza, and I didn’t think the sugar content would be too high for her to tolerate.

Matt said, “I just remembered. I talked with Ken Smythe this morning. He said you could present your credentials whenever you’re ready. The Mediterranean situation faded away almost as fast as it popped up.”

“Matt, who will be recognizing my Embassy: the United States or the United Nations?”

“Hmm, now that is a good question, Doug. Since you will be presenting your credentials to the United Nations, they should recognize your Embassy. However, they don’t have the authority to authorize you to establish the Embassy in the United States or in any other country. I suppose that they will have to coordinate the placement of your Embassy with the United States, or whatever country you decide to live in.

“We know the President and the State Department want you to locate your Embassy in the United States. They will be very upset if you locate the Embassy in Russia, China, or one of the other countries with whom they do not have good relations. Your preliminary agreement includes a defensive weapons system; make sure that the final agreement specifies that lethal and non-lethal weapons are part of the weapons systems. You also need to be sure that it’s a very long-term agreement. You don’t want to renegotiate the conditions every couple of years. There are probably several other things that will come to mind in the coming weeks.

“There is also the matter of income taxes. If so, do you pay them to the United States or to the United Nations? You have told me that traders will come to Earth to trade. How are their earnings to be taxed, who will collect the tax, and who is to receive the tax monies?”

“You’re right, Matt, but I really didn’t need to address all that right now; although I know those decisions will need to be made. We will need to sit down and talk about this type of thing after I get back.”

It seemed like I was setting up another meeting every time I opened my mouth. I know that I have a tendency to over analyze some things, well, actually most things. It seems like I need more input on everything that is going on around me. I sometime wonder if I am oblivious to the events that happen around me. I suppose I will always want as much information as I can get before I make an important decision, especially decisions that can have a major impact on my friends and family.

I said, “Matt, Bill and I found a good deal on a large cattle ranch west of Fort Morgan. The lot measures around two-point-five miles by three miles. It’s mostly flat terrain, has good water, and is just about ideal for my needs.”

Matt asked, “What do you mean by mostly flat terrain?”

“There are a few low hills along the western edge of the property. There are also a few shallow ravines at various places on the property. It looks as if we can use the closer hills to fill in the ravines, and the low hills will be far enough away that someone using them for concealment shouldn’t be a problem.”

“There is a ranch house and barn just off the county road in the southeast corner of the lot. The current owner is a character. There is something about him that I liked a lot. I told him he could continue living in the house after the sale. I’m not sure why I made the offer, but I have this feeling that his presence on the property will be beneficial to us.”

Mary joined in with, “Matt and I were really tired, so we slept in late this morning. We had breakfast at IHOP, and I got a couple of loads of laundry done by lunch, so we’ll have clean clothes to wear when we go visit my sister.”

“After lunch, Mary and I took care of some personal business, and we then went to pick up the sugar,” said Matt. “Since you have the sugar and a ranch, you should be about ready to start back. When do you want to leave?”

“I am currently thinking of tomorrow morning at nine, but I want to talk with Rita and my other ladies to see how they are doing before I decide.”

Matt and Mary looked at each other, and Matt said, “Well, we’ll stick around until then. After you leave, we’re taking a trip to visit her sister.”

While waiting for Sue to finish work and get here, everyone had gathered in the living room so we could start planning on what we were to do.

I let my ladies know that I hadn’t forgotten my promise to take them to Slave World to visit their families and friends. However, the first things I needed to take care of were getting an adequate sugar supply to Inspector Nast, preparing for my meeting with the police officers, and checking with Sergei Magnusson. Then I’d be talking with my family about merging our businesses, and if we merged the businesses, talking with my trade agent Carol Matts about representing the merged business.

“Mary, from what I recall, you are not currently working. I was wondering what type of work you used to do.”

“Why are you asking, Doug?”

“In the near future, I will need to staff a number of positions at the Embassy and at my new business. I am trying to staff the senior positions from what I consider to be my family, and since I think of Matt as family, you are included. If you are interested in going to work for me, I would be happy to have you.”

“I sort of like my lady of leisure role, Doug, but I have become a bit bored since Matt was transferred to HS’s Denver office. I may just be interested if you have a position for an ex-office manager of a sales/marketing company.”

“As you know, Mary, I will need to staff a warehouse operation for buying and selling merchandise. I’m thinking of the warehouse manager as coordinating all of the warehouse activities. Is that similar to the work you did for the sales/marketing company?”

“Sort of, but my job was to manage the sales and office staff, and make sure they coordinated their activities with our warehouse and marketing staffs. I could probably handle your sales and office staff with no problem, but I don’t know much about warehouse operation.”

“I suspect that you would be fine if you had a good warehouse manager, so please think about accepting the position. If you don’t think it’s right for you, I probably have other positions that you could fill, if you want to go back to work.”

As I was finishing my talk with Mary, the doorbell rang and I could hear Rita answering the door. Sue joined us and sat down until Mary and I finished our talk.

Turning to Matt, Sue, and Bill, I said, “As I said before, I suspect the three of you and HS will be parting company in the not too distant future. I think Charlie and Alan will also join us, but I don’t think that will happen for some time.

“If and when that happens, I will have positions for all five of you in my organization, assuming of course that you are interested in working for me.”

“That’s good to know, Doug,” said Sue. “This afternoon Charlie’s boss had Charlie and me report to his office. One of his superiors was asking about the money Bill and I deposited in our bank account. The bank is required to report large transactions to the IRS, and the IRS evidently reported our deposit to HS.

“I informed Charlie’s boss that Bill and I earned the money while we were on unpaid leave. He wanted to know how we earned the money. I told him we had gone to the Multiverse with you and performed certain tasks while we were gone. The money was what you decided our services were worth, and we decided to not argue with him. Charlie confirmed my story, but the boss was not pleased, and told us he would inform his superiors and let us know what they decide.”

Bill asked Sue, “Did he say anything about needing to speak with me?”

“No, but don’t be surprised if you find a voice mail on your phone in the morning from Matt’s boss.”

I looked over to Matt, “What do you think, Matt? Is this the start of the HS higher ups looking for someone to blame or just checking out an unexpected situation?”

“I think they are looking into unexplained income by their subordinates. However, if the situation escalates, they could decide that it requires disciplinary action. We will just have to wait and see what happens. I expect the same thing will happen to me when Mary and I deposit our proceeds from helping you.”

I said, “I hope you’re right, Matt, but this looked like it may be the start of the scenario I was afraid might happen. I talked with Ken Smythe before we left on our trip. I discussed what I would need to have in order to establish my Embassy here in the US. He let me know the President and Secretary of State agreed to meet my wants. One of those wants is diplomatic immunity for my senior staff and me.

“If your employment with HS ends, I want the three of you to work for the Embassy as part of my senior staff. As far as I am concerned, the moment your employment with HS ends, your employment with the Embassy begins.

“I will let Ken Smythe know about this arrangement for I am beginning to get bad feelings about your bosses’ bosses. I don’t understand why, but it makes me nervous. It would probably be a good idea for you to let Ken know as soon as possible if your employment with HS ends, so he will know that you are working for the Embassy as senior staff with diplomatic immunity. That may help in a worst-case scenario, so no one can say we are retroactively employing you, so you can avoid any retribution that your superiors try to inflict on you.”

“Bill, I suggest that you and Sue withdraw a large sum of money from your bank, and keep it at home. If the government decides to take action, they might decide to confiscate or freeze your bank account.”

Sue gave me a weird look, “Aren’t you overreacting Doug. I think you may be starting to become paranoid.”

“That may be true, Sue. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be thought paranoid and prepared for the worst, than have the worst happen and not be prepared.”

“All right everyone, I am planning on a 9:00 AM departure, tomorrow morning. Does anyone have anything that needs to be done before we leave that may require us to reschedule that time?”

As I looked around, everyone was shaking their heads to indicate No, even Sereine. I guess my ladies must have been teaching her Earth body language, or perhaps, she was just copying everyone else’s body language.

“I for one am tired, and suggest that we end this meeting. We can discuss our agenda in the Multiverse during the trip.”

As everyone was leaving, I overheard Sue tell Bill that they needed to make a stop at their bank. That night I was snuggled up behind Betty kissing the back of her neck, when the bedroom door eased open. Sereine shut the door and walked over to our bed.

“Doug, can we talk for a few minutes?”

“Sure, Sereine, is this a private conversation?”

“No, not really; it’s just that I’m not married and my fiancé broke up with me when I became a sugar addict. Now that I will be living on Earth permanently and not traveling, I would like to have a family life with kids of my own, but I don’t see myself in a relationship with someone from Earth or with one of my police colleagues.